Tag: Home

It’s been a very busy few days at the new house! We’ve finished the flooring – after several very long nights.

The counter tops are finished and look fantastic.

The tile in the master bathroom has been installed, grouted and sealed.

The stone work on the fireplace is up, although it needs to be grouted. The stone on the front porch still needs to be started.

The appliances have been delivered and are being installed. I can’t wait to use all the space in this fridge!!

The electrical fixtures (switches and outlets) are almost complete and the baseboard trim has been installed and touch up filler/paint is in progress.

I was worried I might second guess some of the lighting selections, but everything I’ve seen so far looks great.

The prop fan we selected for the family room is on order, so a ‘temporary’ fan was installed for the appraisal.

The builder is now back on-site and doing what he can to keep everything on schedule for closing on December 1. Our movers are scheduled for December 4-6, since they believe it will take a day to pack up our stuff, a day to load the truck and a day to deliver. It seems so close and yet so far away.

Unfortunately, all this progress tends to create a trail an explosion of tools and supplies throughout the house. Every time, I’m there and see the mass of stuff everywhere I twitch unintentionally. But I know it means I’m closer to living in our new home, so I’m working my way through it with deep breaths – which seem to worry my husband more and more. 🙂

And this was a “super clean” day!

The appraisal was supposed to be done today, but might have to be finalized next week once everything is at 100%. The energy rating will be done soon and our home inspection is set for Saturday. We’ve also locked in our interest rate for our loan. If for some reason the paperwork causes a delay, the builder has agreed to do an early occupancy without rent to accommodate our scheduled movers and time off from work.

Other than making sure all the elements are finished, all that’s left will be cleaning and finding a new renter for our current place! Our landlord had someone lined up, but hasn’t gotten confirmation just yet, so we’re hopeful that will work out. Stay tuned for posts on more of the details!

I love browsing the “Free” section of Craigslist because you just never know what you might find – like a hot tub! The other day I spotted an ad for free raspberry plants. I’d been planning to add raspberries to our landscaping and/or garden at the new house and thought even if they weren’t in great shape I just couldn’t beat free, so I called the number.

The lady told me they were growing behind a trailer she was renovating and I could go anytime to take as much or as little as I wanted. She also said that they were producing berries already, they just weren’t turning red. I told her I’d come by the next day to get them. And the next day it rained. All day. I decided to hold off and see if the weather cleared, which it did the following day so off I went, with boots, gloves and shovel in hand.

When I arrived I was shocked to see a thicket of plants along the entire back side of the trailer. They were almost as tall as me and growing like weeds. I picked out the plants with the most berries that were the easiest to get to and started digging. They came up fairly easily, so hopefully I got enough of the roots for them to transplant well. I took about 5-6 plants as that’s all I had containers for at our rental right now and kept a few of the feeder branches that broke off but had small roots. I wish I’d taken a picture of just how full the back of my truck was, but here’s what I ended up with once they were planted!

It’s hard to tell from this angle, but the tub in the back is just as full as the one in the middle. The first tub holds the iris I traded tulip bulbs for in Kodiak and was able to bring with us when we moved this winter. You’ll notice there are also some tall purple flowers in the back of that tub. I collected those from the same place as the raspberry bushes since they were right next to the bushes and would have been demolished in the process of me digging. Hopefully they take and can be transplanted into our yard next season. They seemed to be growing on their own all around the site so I’m thinking they might be a local wildflower. Here’s a closer shot. Anyone know what they are?

The raspberry branches I kept ended up in their own planter. That little bucket was the only thing I had left to plant in! I’m not sure if any of them will take root, but I figured it was worth a shot.

The hubs and I wondered if they might be salmon berry bushes rather than raspberries and set out on an exhaustive Internet search to see if we could confirm that theory. I’ve come to believe they are in fact raspberries based on the leaf shape, but if they develop purple/pink flowers next year they might just prove me wrong. And just to prove that they do in-fact produce fruit, here’s a shot of one of the berries.

I decided to leave everything be for now and let them settle in. If it looks like they take root I might prune them a little in the fall, just before winter to clean them up before the move. If we get into the house before the first frost I’ll get them planted in the ground, but if not they can winter over in these tubs once I wrap them. Either way, I’m now planning for a sweet harvest next summer – provided that the dogs or the moose don’t get to the berries first! LOL

The last time I shared pictures of our home construction, it was little more than a hole in the ground with concrete footers. A lot has changed in the 10 days since! I went back to see the progress the following Saturday and found the floor joists finished and exterior walls going up.

From the driveway.

From the back corner of the back yard.

I met the hubs at the site yesterday since I had the day off. There had been quite a bit more progress! All of the interior walls are up and they are set to begin installing the roof trusses.

The garage. I love how that huge door makes my truck look teeny tiny!

The man door in the garage. The other opening will be the electrical panel.

Entering the house from the garage, where the laundry room will be and my new studio off the kitchen.

The dining room and back door from the kitchen.

The kitchen with my PANTRY framed in!

The great room from the dining room.

The hallway to the bedrooms off the great room and the entry way next to my studio.

The hubs envisioning the ‘view’ from bed out the slider in our master.

The other view from bed, the closet on the left and the bathroom on the right.

The master closet. I’m already planning this space out to be as efficient as possible. Watch for a post about that soon. And guest room #1.

Guest room #2.

The back side of the house.

A more straight on shot of the back of the house so you can see ALL THOSE WINDOWS!

And of course we had to make sure the garage door would be high enough to fit the hub’s big rig! 🙂

Stay tuned for more pictures of the progress and little projects of choosing things as we move on to the details. I’m hoping to get some shots with the roof on in the next week!

I decided to stop by one of my favorite Anchorage stores – Alaska Mill & Feed – on my birthday, just because. Little did I know they had a gardening oasis in the back! Hydrangea, lilacs, daisies, iris, salvia and even forsythia, which I didn’t know would grow here! It made me wish we were moving into our new home sooner than we likely will, so I could get my ‘stock’ going. Unfortunately all of my containers are currently full and I’m about out of room for more around our rental.

I did however find this salad bowl. I’d heard of the concept and actually planned to create one when we moved. It contains a mix of lettuces for a perfect combination of greenery for salads. Some were marked Alfresco Mix and other City Salad Mix. I honestly have no idea what the difference was other than the city mix had more of the dark red lettuce, which I’m not a huge fan of. When I saw they were marked $29.99 I decided to take one home because I couldn’t buy the bowl, soil and plants to create the same thing for less than that. I went with the Alfresco Mix and chose the one with the least amount of red lettuce, just due to personal taste.

So now we have fresh lettuce for salads anytime we want! A perfect combination with it’s neighbor, the cherry tomato plant. And the best part is that the more we pick from it, the faster it should regrow! Now the trick will be keeping it alive all winter indoors! Good thing the dogs don’t seem to have a taste for salad. LOL